Microsoft is now ready to roll with a version of Windows 10 designed specifically for the Chinese government, it has emerged.
Back in December, Microsoft and China Electronics Technology Group Corp (CETC) announced they were setting up a Beijing-based joint partnership called C&M Information Technologies. The new organization …

@massivelySerial - "Unless you were in any doubt whether the politburo had completely abandoned communism. If they hadn't they'd have chosen Linux."

Communism - isn't that the system where a small, self-selected, out of touch, authoritarian group holds a virtual monopoly on everything that matters and decides what everyone else will be getting? And the board of directors politburo drones on endlessly about their 5 and 10 year enterprise roadmap plan?

And free markets - isn't that the system where anybody who wants to is free to go out and create whatever they feel like and offer it to others? And where each person gets to pick and choose from among a huge and sometimes bewildering range of options, with order and success arising out of seeming chaos without any central direction? And where monopolies are fundamentally incompatible with it?

Yes, I can certainly see your analogy there. Excuse me comrade, but the new 5 year plan enterprise road map from Redmond requires me to engage in Stakhanovite labours to meet the Windows 10 install quota for this month. Glory to the Windows marketing department!

Communism - isn't that the system where a small, self-selected, out of touch, authoritarian group holds a virtual monopoly on everything that matters and decides what everyone else will be getting?

To be fair, that also seems to be the definition of democracy used in the US and UK and it accurately describes the attitude of Microsoft management regarding its userbase fi the way Windows 10 made it onto systems is anything to go by.

The only difference between "Windows 10 - democracy version" and "Windows 10, China" version is that the former needs spyware techniques to be "accepted" by a "majority" of users, whereas the China version is simply mandated and phones Beijing instead of Redmond.

where each person gets to pick and choose from among a huge and sometimes bewildering range of options

Hmm. Windows 10, Windows 10 or .. ah, Windows 10. Or Microsoft via management, Microsoft via habit or Microsoft via a blackmailed OEM. Ah, freedom, one of the last illusions of the West.

It still phones home

Re: It still phones home

Re: It still phones home

but at least you know the Chinese are spying and profiling. You know they aren't selling the details to advertisers too. In fact probably the opposite.

Here is the irony. Our Chinese boarding students are often amazed by the internet when they first arrive, they cannot believe what is blocked by the firewall and what they can see. But after the first few weeks the newness dies down and they realise that the "western" news agencies and a lot of blocked sites etc are just advert ridden muck; they soon drop back to baidu and home sites.

Re: It still phones home

I agree with you with how they tend to stick to Chinese sites obviously b/c they are Chinese centric sites catered to their interest. However, I disagree that they aren't as advert ridden muck or worse than Western sites. OMG, my sister in law from mainland China would always run into trouble with labtop and I would sometimes help her with her computer. I swear 90 percent of her problems were malware b/c of the shaddy ads pasted everywhere on the mainstream Chinese websites she always frequents, the usual crap entertainment news and other stuff. You could find pirated stuff on the Chinese equivalent of Yahoo news posted prominently, so it is not surprising that the websites could care less if their third party ad company sneak malware into the ads.

Now she only uses Macs in part b/c of those issues. She generally avoids the websites that criticize the Chinese Government even in passing, it's just makes her uncomfortable even though the government had wronged her immediate family directly on more than one occasion(people in jail etc etc). Chinese expats can be pretty sensitive and nationalistic for the most part. I am not judging or really care, but meeting other Chinese students at the graduate level and you notice that her attitude politically is typical mainland for Chinese born and Western University educated elite you see at universities in the US. You really can't avoid observing it especially when something happens like the Beijing Olympics a while back.

So....

If China can have a Windows that doesn't phone home, so can everyone else. Just need some helpful hack to figure out how, that is beyond just installing a Linux or BSD or some such. Or just pulling out the network cord.

Audits?

Re: Audits?

"I'd like to see Microsoft sic the BSA on China."

Clearly letting piracy run rampant in China has been good for microsoft. The endemic use of pirate XP has forced the Chinese government to give up on the idea of a home-grown OS as the population are just too dependent.

I'd expect the Russians to follow suit on the Chinese lead shortly. They have had as much intention to brew their own OS and seemingly as much success.

Of course the UK will be on the phone shortly after that. They have just as much interest in recording their populations usage habits as the other two, and are just as dependant on Microsoft technology.

All they did

Can you imagine the furore if it actually did phone home because some oversight - lol, no more MS in China ! The loss of revenue would be enormous ! Maybe the take up of Linux could happen then and that would be a double wammy to MS !

Anyway I don't care anymore, Linux Mint works great for me - It's faster, doesn't need even 25% of the 16gb of ram I have installed and usually only utilizes 2-3gb only !

MS can go where the sun doesn't shine because I am perfectly happy to have a faster, more secure, more productive, non data slurping, non security snooping Laptop :)

Re: It's to bad China isn't capable of make an Operating System of their own

Inside info

I presume that the Chinese government has been given a greater insight into Windows 10 source code and all updates in order to satisfy them that what they get will be what they are buying. This is a great ruse in order to get a better handle on how to hack into Windows 10. It will save them time.

And given that this will be the last version of Windows, what an opportune time to decide that it is time for such a partnership.

Re: more excuses?

After Windows 10 "Rick Roll" ...

... Windows 10 "Spring Roll"

"Microsoft and CETC have been working on a custom image of Windows 10 for government customers since we announced our initial agreement in September, based on the tools that we make available to organizations around the world"